Seeking to demonstrate its commitment to community health and ﬁtness, the InterAmerican Sports Association hosted its ﬁrst health fair on Sunday, August 15, 2010. Click here to see their official newsletter about the event.

“We’ve taken a ﬁrst step to think of ourselves as more than a mere administrator of athletic games,” said
InterAmerican Sports Association founder Edgar Vazquez. “We are fulﬁlling our role as a partner in the community. Through our players who compete every day of the week, we have contact with thousands of families in Santa Ana and we want them to know more about how to improve their health.”

Participant Ricardo Sanchez, state coordinator of Por La Salud y Educación del Migrante, an arm of the Mexican government, administered more than forty glucose tests and gave dozens of other exams on Sunday. Among those he tested: a man who learned he likely has diabetes, a new resident of the area who did not know how to get diabetes medications and a woman who mistakenly thought she doesn’t need annual well woman checks because she is no longer married.

“We need to reach people one at a time, face to face,” he said. “It’s an event like this that gives us that chance at improving public health.”

About the InterAmerican Sports Association

The InterAmerican Sports Association is a league comprising 2,000 soccer players who play in 150 teams. The association, founded in 1991, The association estimates it has hosted 25,000 games since. The league leases ﬁelds from the city of Santa Ana and works diligently with city ofﬁcials to maintain them. Soccer is the largest single source of physical activity in Santa Ana. There are 30,000 players in the city: an estimated one in every 17 adults playing the sport and one in four children on a team.